Chicken Soup
by moonlit flower
Summary: Sheldon's sick. Leonard's sick of taking care of him. Except, he really doesn't mind. Sheldon/Leonard. Drabble.


Title: Chicken Soup  
Author: Moonlit Flower  
Fandom: The Big Bang Theory  
Rating: PG-13  
Pairing: Sheldon/Leonard  
Summary: Sheldon's sick. Leonard's sick of taking care of him. Except, he really doesn't mind.  
A/N: Written for lj bigslashtheory challenge: Sick Sheldon.

--

Ri-. Ring. Ri-. Ri-. Pause. Ri-. Pause. Ring. Ring. Ri-

"Shut up, Sheldon! I'm coming already. And I thought a bell would keep him from making so much noise." The other physicist shuffled down the corridor in shorts, a T-shirt and chicken soup.

-ing. Pause. Ri- Ring.

Leonard stopped, propped up the tray and banged his head against the wall. Several times. Hard. Before stepping back and staring down at the, seemingly friendly, bowl of broth. People came together in catastrophes. Formed bonds, you know.

"Everyone makes mistakes. Let's just move on.", He whispered to it.

Ri-.

Leonard backed into Sheldon's door and sank onto his carpet.

"Alright, alright. I'm here." , He sighed as he placed the tray on the edge of the bed, avoiding the lump that was Sheldon. One pale hand peeked out from the blankets, looking dead to the world except for when he gave minute shakes of his bell.

"Where do you want this?", Leonard asked. He shifted the tray awkwardly.

At the sound, Sheldon slid up from the bed, closely cropped hair swirled up ridiculously. His eyes were bloodshot and the hand hooked around the bell handle flopped despondently on the bed. The fever brought an unhealthily vivid color to his cheeks. Like the harsh glow of a red LED light pulsing beneath his skin.

Sheldon's tongue darted out once to moisten his lips for words.

"In my mouth.", he rasped. "Mom also made train noises when I was sick."

Leonard squinted. "What?"

Sheldon tried to give his raised eyebrow, sucked in cheek, I can't believe you're this dumb face, but only managed to pull off half-inflated chipmunk.

"Choo. Choo.", Sheldon offered.

Bright pink spots welled up on Leonard's cheeks. "I know what sound a train makes, but are you really expecting me to make them? I'll spoon feed you, but that's where I draw the line. I'm not going to make train noises for a grown man." He huffed before offering a spoonful of soup.

Sheldon took the soup- and chewed it, Leonard noted in surprise- then swallowed it.

"Sing the song then?", Sheldon mumbled around the noodles Leonard forced in.

"The kitten song?", Leonard asked. Sheldon stared.

"Right. Fine. Well, Ahem.

Soft Kitty, Warm Kitty. Little ball of fur...", he sang.

Sheldon closed his eyes and sank into the pillows, occasionally opening for a spoon of soup, looking like the very picture of contentment.

When Leonard came to the end and stopped, Sheldon's eyes snapped opened and he glared until Leonard kept on.

Eventually the spoon hit the bottom of the bowl. Leonard scraped the last of it off and tipped it into Sheldon's mouth. Sheldon licked the spoon then opened dark feverish eyes. They caught Leonard 's own brown gaze before closing once more.

Leonard's own eyes drifted to the wet, flushed pink of Sheldon's lips.

The tray nearly spilled to the floor when Leonard jumped up.

"Um. I'm going to just- just put this in the kitchen now. Night, Sheldon."

Sheldon burrowed into his blankets and Leonard closed the door behind himself. He collapsed against it breath coming out strong and hard. Leonard stayed there for a while before he realized Sheldon might hear him and hightailed it back to his room.

There was no way he was going to do this again. It was too dangerous.

The door shut and Sheldon waited a few seconds to make sure Leonard wasn't coming back before he slipped out of bed and to the Jabba the Hutt Matryoshka doll. Removing the upper half, Sheldon revealed a small, blinking camera.

A good theoretical physicist was always prepared. Or maybe that was a boy scout. Either way, Sheldon quickly transferred the video file from his camera to his laptop to his music player. He slid on a pair of rubber headphones- the ones that went outside his ears because Sheldon wouldn't trust his eardrums to direct and constant beating from ear buds.

Sheldon retucked himself and switched the music player on. His eyes drifted shut to the sounds of Leonard crooning "Soft kitty..."

--

First real attempt at Leonard. Feels a little like fail. And insomnia. Mmm...gotta love that insomnia.

Oh, and if no one caught that, Sheldon's ringing in Morse Code at the beginning. Figuring out how to type, then typing the letters for Leonard took as much time as writing the story. …I'm a dork.


End file.
